Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’s Progression Detailed

Though Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a From Software game through and through, the studio’s making sure to separate the upcoming action-adventure game from its recent titles. One way it’s doing so, aside from ditching online multiplayer, is modifying how character progression works. In a feature published by Game Informer, the studio detailed the way progression works and how it differs from other games like Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series.

In Sekiro, you play as a shinobi dubbed The One-Armed Wolf. Because From has created an established character, there are no customization options in regards to changing class; players start the game with a sword and will likely end the game with a sword (though secondary equipment by way of the prosthetic arm may change). With this limitation in class customization, Sekiro will feature a skill tree that allows players to unlock new moves and abilities.

Players kill enemies to gain experience and collect gold; in other recent From games, experience and currency were one in the same. After killing enemies, new levels are achieved upon filling an experience bar. Once players unlock skill trees by finding particular items within the game’s world, players can invest those experience points in one of three skill trees shown to Game Informer: samurai arts, a traditional warrior archetype that favors power and aggression; shinobi arts, skills focused on evasive and crowd-control maneuvers; and the prosthetic arm.

As noted by From’s president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, during E3 2018, Sekiro is “probably even more challenging than previous From games.” As such, death will likely come swift and often. However, unlike previous From games, Sekiro won’t feature the infamous corpse run. Instead, experience and gold collected during that life will stay with the player upon either restarting or resurrection. While this may seem to be a strange departure for the masters of the masochistic action game, Miyazaki told Game Informer that “death will have a detrimental effect” but didn’t divulge how or in what way.

Though players can use experience points to upgrade attributes and spend gold to purchase items, improving The One-Armed Wolf’s other stats require more exploration. Similar to The Legend of Zelda’s heart pieces, Sekiro will have prayer beads scattered throughout the world–either hidden in rooms or on enemies and mini-bosses–that increase the protagonist’s health. According to From, there may also be upgrade tools for the prosthetic arm and ways to build upon the game’s resurrection mechanic.

With the absence of online multiplayer and honing in on a single-player experience, From says this method of character progression allows it to fine-tune the depth of individual encounters. It also allows them to focus on character progression instead of just player progression “While you are a fixed shinobi protagonist, you do feel like there’s a sense of progression, there’s a sense of building your own character and finding your own playstyle, and experimenting with this throughout the game,” Yasuhiro Kitao, From’s manager of marketing and communications, told Game Informer.

Sekiro is scheduled to launch on March 22, 2019.

HBO’s Game Of Thrones Prequel Adds 8 To Its Cast And Finds A Director

HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel TV show still doesn’t have a proper name, but its cast is getting bigger. The show, which will star Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse in leading roles, has added eight more names to its roster of stars.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the newly revealed cast includes Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: Episode IX), Toby Regbo (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Denise Gough (Angels in America), Ivanno Jeremiah (Black Mirror), Jamie Campbell Bower (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia), and Alex Sharp (To the Bone). Much like everything else about the series, all character details are a tightly held secret.

What we do know is that the new show is set long before the events of Game of Thrones. A logline, per THR, reads “Only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend–it’s not the story we think we know.”

George R.R. Martin, who wrote the novels the franchise is based on, teased on his blog that the prequel would be called The Long Night. He later noted that HBO says a name has not been given to the series. In Game of Thrones lore, the Long Night refers to a time roughly 8,000 years before the events of the series during the Age of Heroes. It’s during this time that the White Walkers make their first appearance in Westeros in the middle of a particularly brutal winter.

Directing the pilot episode for the series will be SJ Clarkson, who is also signed on to helm the next Star Trek film. Clarkson has an impressive TV resume, that includes directing episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Jessica Jones, Bates Motel, and Dexter, among others.

Jane Goldman, who wrote the pilot script and collaborated with Martin on the story, will serve as showrunner on the prequel. A production start date has yet to be revealed, though THR says more casting announcements should be announced at a later date. The final season of Game of Thrones will premiere in April.

PS4’s Massive Holiday Sale Adds More Games But Ends Soon, So Hurry

The holidays have come and gone, but Sony’s PSN Holiday SaIe is still going strong. At long last, we’ve reached the fifth and final week of this promotion, which offers discounts on over 1,600 games, expansions, and digital items for PS4, PS3, and Vita (and PS Plus members get an extra discount on many of the items). So take a look at some of the best deals available. Just make sure to finalize your purchases before the discounts go away on January 15.

So what’s on sale? It might be easier to list what isn’t, but let’s look at some of the highlights. New discounts this week include $15 for Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game in the series, which originally appeared on PS2 in 2006. And if you still have a PS Vita, you can grab what’s arguably its best game, Persona 4 Golden, for just $10.

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Aside from that, you can get PS4 exclusives like Bloodborne for $7, Shadow of the Colossus for $14, and The Last Guardian for $11. Both Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End can be scooped up for $16 each. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a standalone coda to the series that focuses on characters besides Nathan Drake, is down to $8. And for longtime PlayStation fans, each installment in the Jak trilogy is available for $6.

Many third-party heavy hitters are on sale for fantastic prices as well. Grand Theft Auto V is down to its lowest-ever price at $15. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is on sale for $18, and the content-rich game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is $20. You can find a somewhat exhaustive list of our picks below, or you can head to the PlayStation Store to find a fully exhaustive list of every item on sale until January 15.

Destiny 2’s Community Is Trying To Solve A Huge Puzzle To Open The Last Forge

Destiny 2‘s latest weekly reset includes new content, and right now, pretty much every hardcore player in the Destiny community is trying to figure out how to access it. Teams are currently investigating a new location called Niobe Labs, where they’re trying to solve an involved puzzle that requires having certain weapons to find hidden symbols, which players have to shoot in a particular order to activate.

Niobe Labs is set to unlock the last new activity of The Black Armory, the latest Destiny 2 expansion. That’s the Bergusia Forge, the fourth and final of the Forge areas where you can craft new, powerful weapons as part of the expansion. Over the last month since the expansion launched, the community has been uncovering and solving puzzles related to the Forges, each requiring a different weapon that’s become available as each new Forge has been unlocked.

With the release of Niobe Labs, it seems we’re dealing with the culmination of all those puzzle-solving efforts, and teams are currently standing in the special room trying to figure out what exactly they have to do in it. On Twitter, Bungie said once one team figures out Niobe Labs, the Bergusia Forge will be unlocked for the rest of the player base–kind of like what happened when new content unlocked after the first successful completion of the Last Wish Raid in the Forsaken expansion late last year.

You can access Niobe Labs and try to solve it yourself if you want, although unless you’re following the progress of the rest of the Destiny community on streams and Reddit, you’ll probably be wasting your time. The room is located in Earth’s EDZ, in the Outskirts area.

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As you enter the Outskirts, head south past where the Forge Saboteurs sometimes spawn and cross the bridge toward Sojourner’s Camp. Pass through the camp area (you’ll have visited here during Destiny 2’s original story campaign) and look for a broken metal bridge at the far end. You can cross that bridge to access a gorge, which will lead you to a cave through which you can pass to access the hidden facility beyond.

Streamers like Teawrex, Datto, and Professor Broman are currently broadcasting attempts at solving the puzzle, and progress is being made, at least. You can also track the progress of the efforts on the Destiny 2 subreddit. For those of us who can’t add our genius to figuring out the Black Armory’s final brainteaser, watching and waiting is about all there is to do.

Deadpool Director Making New Mature Animated Series For Netflix

Over the past year Netflix has been increasing its focus on animated content, and there are some high-profile projects set to hit the service. Directors Tim Miller (Deadpool, the upcoming Terminator sequel) and David Fincher (The Social Network, Seven) are the latest names to work a new animated series for the company.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Miller and FIncher will executively produce a series titled Love, Death & Robots for Netflix. It’s an 18-part anthology show aimed at an mature audience that will span several genres, such as sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and comedy. The animation styles will vary too, from traditional 2D to more modern CG styles, and each episode will run from 5 to 15 minutes. While it does not yet have a premiere date, Netflix has released some images from the show. Check them out below:

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In a statement, Miller said: “Love, Death & Robots is my dream project. It combines my love of animation and amazing stories. Midnight movies, comics, books, and magazines of fantastic fiction have inspired me for decades, but they were relegated to the fringe culture of geeks and nerds of which I was a part. I’m so f***ing excited that the creative landscape has finally changed enough for adult-themed animation to become part of a larger cultural conversation.”

As the producer of House of Cards, Fincher has been involved with Netflix since the company started producing original content in 2012, and more recently made the acclaimed Mindhunter for the service. Miller has previously worked with Fincher, and created the spectacular animated title sequence for his 2011 movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

In October, it was announced that Guillermo del Toro is working on a new animated movie version of Pinocchio for Netflix, and there are also a further six major animated projects in the works. The company continues to push into this area ahead of the launch of Disney’s streaming service Disney+ next year. Netflix also reportedly plans to launch its own animation studio, which will enable it to make projects in-house without having to outsource much of the technical work to existing animation companies.

Destiny 2 Ascendant Challenge Location (January 8-15) Week 1: Where To Go And What To Do Guide

The latest weekly reset for Destiny 2 brings the new Niobe Labs content drop for The Black Armory expansion, but with it also comes another Ascendant Challenge. We’ve completed the Dreaming City’s six-week cycle on Ascendant Challenges, which means that this week, we’re back to the beginning. Here’s where to go and what to do to complete the challenge.

As always, the Ascendant Challenge starts out with acquiring the corresponding bounty from Petra in the Dreaming City. You’ll also need a Tincture of Queensfoil, a consumable item you can earn by taking part in certain activities in the Dreaming City (or you can outright buy one). Once you have both the bounty and a Tincture, you’ll head to a Lost Sector, Aphelion’s Rest, which is located in The Strand, just beneath the area where Petra is sometimes found. Using a Tincture will grant you a buff, Ascendance, that allows you to see a Taken portal. This one is located partway through the Lost Sector, atop a hill–it’s hard to miss if you’ve used your Tincture.

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Jumping into the portal takes you to the Ascendant Plane’s Ouroborea. There, you’ll have to explore the area to find four different blights. Enter the dome and destroy its core; you’ll know you’ve done it when it disappears and the text “a seal breaks” pops up in the bottom-left corner. Once you’ve dealt with all the blights, you’ll go back toward the center to destroy crystals (whose protective shield has been temporarily dropped). Just beware the knights who will chase you around as you do this–your best bet is to keep moving in a circle, which should let you destroy the crystals without allowing the knights to get too close.

Although the chest is unlikely to have much in the way of worthwhile rewards, finishing the Ascendant Challenge also completes the bounty you picked up from Petra. That rewards you with a piece of Powerful gear that is highly desirable and can increase your level, making this all worth the trouble, provided you’re capable of getting it done. With The Black Armory expansion in full swing, players are back to the gear grind to get to the new level cap of 650.

Although this Ascendant Challenge is not a new one, there is a lot happening in Destiny 2 right now. Niobe Labs means the fourth of The Black Armory’s new Forges to unlock, as well as a new step in the Mystery Box Exotic quest we’ve been tracking since the expansion released last month.

There are actually five new Exotic weapons in The Black Armory to find, four of which we know about (and one of which we can take a guess at). There’s also a lot more happening in January and beyond: Bungie laid out its content calendar for the rest of Year 2, which is pretty extensive.

13 Secrets We Learned on the Set of Captain Marvel

While Marvel was shooting Captain Marvel in 2018, IGN and a small group of press visited the set in southern California to learn more about the upcoming film featuring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, the high-flying superhero Captain Marvel. The two trailers released thus far have given viewers a taste of what to expect, and now we have some juicy soundbites from the directors, producer, and actors for you to sink your teeth into.

Here are 13 things we learned while on set.

(Also check out three behind-the-scenes photos from the set by clicking through the slideshow gallery below.)

The Movie’s Unusual Timeline

The trailers have already painted a picture of what to expect, but producer Jason Schwartz gave us the chronological skeleton of how the movie unfolds. He said they were consciously trying to make this movie different structurally from other Marvel origin stories, and so “the movie starts with the Captain Marvel character already in outer space, already having superpowers, and already fighting on the side of the Kree in the Kree/Skrull war. You get a glimpse of her squad there, Starforce, led by

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Marvel ‘Planting Seeds’ for Secret Invasion in Captain Marvel

The upcoming Captain Marvel movie features the introduction of the Skrulls, a shapeshifting race of aliens with green skin and pointy ears. They’re the villains who are at war with the Kree, another race of aliens that Captain Marvel is allied with at the start of the film. The Skrulls’ most iconic storyline in the comics is the 2008 event Secret Invasion where numerous citizens of Earth and even several superheroes are revealed to be Skrull sleeper agents who then enact their years-in-the-making plan to conquer the planet. With Captain Marvel establishing the Skrulls in the ‘90s of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it certainly opens the door for Secret Invasion to come to fruition in a later movie.

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